Welcome James Harden!

[SixthStreet]

If he leaves he leaves. This is the player empowerment era. He's got a good thing going here but if he wants to go where his roots are we pivot. It's the way the NBA is. Hopefully we get a title out of it.

What I'd say if I were some invented Rockets fan who never heard of Harden I'd be pretty puzzled why they'd sign him. They would best be served tanking another year to add another blue chip talent. Although that math does change if they win Wemby. Then it would make sense to sign Harden.

[76Love]

Houston will not be competitive for at least the next 4 seasons. I don't think Harden has the patience to babysit those young guys

I could see him going elsewhere but not back to Houston

[rocketsfan100]

Or the Sixers saving the capspace for maxey. I don’t think they want to be paying harden, Embiid and Maxey max or close to the max. Plus there is Tobias and his contract

That’s what the owner will have to do though. They reset the tax to avoid the repeater. This had to have been discussed. His discount added salary depth flexibility. I think he is simply pushing the owner to go all in next year. The ball will be in his court. Morey can get creative next year if a star pops up. Tobias is going to be an expiring contract.

I honestly don’t see morey as much as he loves James offering the full max long term.

[rocketsfan100]

If he leaves he leaves. This is the player empowerment era. He's got a good thing going here but if he wants to go where his roots are we pivot. It's the way the NBA is. Hopefully we get a title out of it.

What I'd say if I were some invented Rockets fan who never heard of Harden I'd be pretty puzzled why they'd sign him. They would best be served tanking another year to add another blue chip talent. Although that math does change if they win Wemby. Then it would make sense to sign Harden.

My only explanation the Sixers are not going to give him the max. As a fan of his I feel Philadelphia is a better situation as much as I would love to see him back here in Houston

[eyeatoma]

Read on Twitter

I feel like he most definitely won't get the max if we don't make the ECF bare minimum. His performance during the playoffs will go along way in determining that.

I'd say it would suck if he leaves especially given that he's really gotten back to Brooklyn Harden for sure. Silver lining is a lot more capspace to put some good young player and defense around Embiid and then make Maxey the star 2 guard in the starting lineup. For me it's a win win. If Harden leaves, there could be a chance that Embiid asks out, we'll see though.

[eyeatoma]

Or the Sixers saving the capspace for maxey. I don’t think they want to be paying harden, Embiid and Maxey max or close to the max. Plus there is Tobias and his contract

Maxey is on a rookie deal, he won't affect the capspace we have if Harden leaves, we can use that on a free agent.

[76ciology]

Or the Sixers saving the capspace for maxey. I don’t think they want to be paying harden, Embiid and Maxey max or close to the max. Plus there is Tobias and his contract

That’s what the owner will have to do though. They reset the tax to avoid the repeater. This had to have been discussed. His discount added salary depth flexibility. I think he is simply pushing the owner to go all in next year. The ball will be in his court. Morey can get creative next year if a star pops up. Tobias is going to be an expiring contract.

I honestly don’t see morey as much as he loves James offering the full max long term.

I dont see Sixers valuing Maxey near as much as Harden that they’d risk losing Harden because of Maxey. This is Daryl Morey, in his eyes its Embiid, Harden and 3 to 15.

Im no expert about cap space but Im guessing Maxey will replace Tobi’s salary and earn Jordan Poole type money.

I think Morey will offer Harden the long term full max, if thats what it takes. He’s just here to get us the championship. Once this run is over after 2-3 season from now, the FO and coaching is very likely going to get an overhaul.

In the scenario Harden wants to leave. I think we’d work a S&T to get Dame (or even Beal) in return or something.

[rocketsfan100]

That’s what the owner will have to do though. They reset the tax to avoid the repeater. This had to have been discussed. His discount added salary depth flexibility. I think he is simply pushing the owner to go all in next year. The ball will be in his court. Morey can get creative next year if a star pops up. Tobias is going to be an expiring contract.

I honestly don’t see morey as much as he loves James offering the full max long term.

I dont see Sixers valuing Maxey near as much as Harden that they’d risk losing Harden because of Maxey. This is Daryl Morey, in his eyes its Embiid, Harden and 3 to 15.

I think Morey will offer Harden the full max. He’s just here to get us the championship. Once this run is over after 2-3 season from now, the FO and coaching is very likely going to get an overhaul.

In the scenario Harden wants to leave. I think we’d work a S&T to get Dame (or even Beal) in return or something.

if he gets full max offer for say three years I don’t see him leaving Philadelphia. After his contract expires then at 36 or 37 he will probably play a year in Houston and retire. I think he wants the max and Morey offers it he will stay.

[76ciology]

I honestly don’t see morey as much as he loves James offering the full max long term.

I dont see Sixers valuing Maxey near as much as Harden that they’d risk losing Harden because of Maxey. This is Daryl Morey, in his eyes its Embiid, Harden and 3 to 15.

I think Morey will offer Harden the full max. He’s just here to get us the championship. Once this run is over after 2-3 season from now, the FO and coaching is very likely going to get an overhaul.

In the scenario Harden wants to leave. I think we’d work a S&T to get Dame (or even Beal) in return or something.

if he gets full max offer for say three years I don’t see him leaving Philadelphia. After his contract expires then at 36 or 37 he will probably play a year in Houston and retire. I think he wants the max and Morey offers it he will stay.

Yeah, then Sixers will give Maxey around $30M per year where Harden’s scoring load will be given to Maxey. While Harden plays like a CP3 type role with the team.

And if this set-up does not put them at the contender status, I then guess we’d be open for major trades or even a complete rebuild. Look at how the league is going right now.

[HardenGoat]

You can max your current players and just go into the tax. Harden isn’t worried about the money so much as the type of players that can come in that are already on max type contracts. What Iam suggesting is more of an out situation if he runs into a Tillman scenario where players get dumped for tax savings. Morey can get creative but the owner has to let him. It’s just leverage.

[HotelVitale]

I'd say it would suck if he leaves especially given that he's really gotten back to Brooklyn Harden for sure. Silver lining is a lot more capspace to put some good young player and defense around Embiid and then make Maxey the star 2 guard in the starting lineup. For me it's a win win. If Harden leaves, there could be a chance that Embiid asks out, we'll see though.

There’s no winning option if he leaves. We’d only have like $8m in cap space if he flat out walks, and we still owe 3 1sts going forward and don’t have any good expendable trade assets. We’d be pretty stuck roster wise.

Life would go on and maybe things would work out in a year or two but it’d be a major setback.

[Stanford]

Really confused by eyeatoma's argument here. How do we have cap space if we lose Harden?

[eyeatoma]

Really confused by eyeatoma's argument here. How do we have cap space if we lose Harden?

I just assumed we would, thought his money comes off the books.

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[eyeatoma]

I'd say it would suck if he leaves especially given that he's really gotten back to Brooklyn Harden for sure. Silver lining is a lot more capspace to put some good young player and defense around Embiid and then make Maxey the star 2 guard in the starting lineup. For me it's a win win. If Harden leaves, there could be a chance that Embiid asks out, we'll see though.

There’s no winning option if he leaves. We’d only have like $8m in cap space if he flat out walks, and we still owe 3 1sts going forward and don’t have any good expendable trade assets. We’d be pretty stuck roster wise.

Life would go on and maybe things would work out in a year or two but it’d be a major setback.

My bad, did not realize this.

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[HardenGoat]

The only danger in giving him the max is an albatross Wall or Westbrook situation should he decline like that. Basically it's just owner money. I would be more worried about getting a better fitting forward. The salaries of Tucker, Melton, and House represent slots for what that could fetch. I would prioritize moving Tobias and House in the offseason. (Kork too)

[Stanford]

I just assumed we would, thought his money comes off the books.

It does but we're way over the cap. Unless I'm missing something.

[eyeatoma]

I just assumed we would, thought his money comes off the books.

It does but we're way over the cap. Unless I'm missing something.

If we trade Tobias we would have a lot though right?

How are we way over the books? Our max contracts right now are Tobi, Jo and Harden. Harden leaves, doesn't that give us another max slot? We're only using the MLE on PJ.

Not trying to argue, just genuinely confused by this. I also believe you, this is just annoying as ****. If Harden leaves, then it's bye bye Jo, he's not sticking around for 1 down year.

[HardenGoat]

https://www.libertyballers.com/platform/amp/2023/2/21/23595211/ducking-the-luxury-tax-might-extend-the-sixers-championship-window
This is a breakdown of why it was important to duck the tax and to have added what Harden opened up in terms of salary spots by taking the discount. You can use those spots for trade etc., don’t worry about the players occupying them right now. (Tucker, House) The owner saved 14.5 million this year but next year there’s no conceivable way to avoid the tax while keeping the current roster intact (meaning nobody is cut). But … here’s the BIG thing.. he also has avoided the repeater which will amount to at least a max salary spot (45 million) in and of itself! He is saving that along with the 14.5. My thought is this was already discussed with Harden with the interest of giving him the best team possible roster wise. It had to be on the table when he sacrificed a good chunk of salary and took that risk. The owner now has to go all in and that’s what Harden is going to watch. This is why he didn’t sign a long term contract because he would have lost his leverage in being able to make the team better. He wants to be on a team that is all in on winning a chip, owner included.

[Stanford]

Not trying to argue, just genuinely confused by this.

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/cap/2023/

51 million over the cap next season. Harden makes 35.

[Kobblehead]

Why they hell would the Rockets give him a max?